An irretrievably broken-down marriage "spells cruelty"; is a ground for dissolution: Top Court

A marriage which has broken down irretrievably, spells cruelty to both the parties, as in such a relationship each party is treating the
other with cruelty and is therefore a ground for dissolution of marriage under section 13 (1) (ia) of the Hindu Marriage Act (the Act).

"..a marital relationship which has only become more bitter and acrimonious over the years, does nothing but inflicts cruelty on both the sides. To keep the facade of this broken marriage alive would be doing injustice to both the parties", a bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and JB Pardiwala has observed.

Court further noted that while Cruelty has not been defined under the Act, the context where it has been used, which is as a ground for dissolution of a marriage would show that it has to be seen as a human conduct and behavior in a matrimonial relationship.

In the case before Court, an aggrieved husband had filed an appeal against the order of the Delhi High Court, whereby it had set aside the marriage dissolution decree issued by the Court of Additional District Judge (North), Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi.

The top court noted that while discord in the marriage started early on, the couple was now living separately for the last almost 25 years, and all these years there had been no cohabitation between them.

It was further found that there was no child out of the wedlock, and the couple lived together as husband and wife for barely 4 years. Also, repeated efforts by courts for reconciliation or settlement were found to have failed.

"When we take into consideration the facts as they exist today, we are convinced that continuation of this marriage would mean
continuation of cruelty, which each now inflicts on the other. Irretrievable breakdown of a marriage may not be a ground for dissolution of marriage, under the Hindu Marriage Act, but cruelty is...", the division bench noted.

It was thus held that such a relationship must end as its continuation is causing cruelty on both the sides.

"The long separation and absence of cohabitation and the complete breakdown of all meaningful bonds and the existing bitterness between the two, has to be read as cruelty under section 13(1) (ia) of the 1955 Act. We therefore hold that in a given case, such as the one at hand, where the marital relationship has broken down irretrievably, where there is a long separation and absence of cohabitation (as in the present case for the last 25 years), with multiple court cases between the parties; then continuation of such a
marriage would only mean giving sanction to cruelty which each is inflicting on the other...", the bench observed while restoring the trial court's order, though on different ground noted by it.

Case title: SHRI RAKESH RAMAN vs. SMT. KAVITA